ultimatepopculturefandomcom-20200216-history
Black Hand (comics)
Black Hand (real name William Hand) is a DC Comics supervillain and a recurring foe to Green Lantern. He first appeared in Green Lantern (vol. 2) #29 (June 1964) and was created by John Broome and Gil Kane. Fictional character biography The man who would one day be known as Black Hand was born an inventive genius, with a penchant for speaking in extremely old clichés. William's family, the Hands, were renowned in Coastville, a suburb of Coast City, California. He, however, grew to dislike them early in life. He felt the best way to distance himself from them, especially his three brothers (David, Peter and Joe), was by starting a life of crime. After extensive study, he became an expert criminal and evaded police at every turn. Eventually he progressed into a costumed supervillain and dubbed himself "Black Hand" (this was actually an inside joke, in reference to his status as the "black sheep" of the Hand family). In preparation for an inevitable battle with the Coast City-based Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Hand made his most noteworthy invention. The device was able to absorb the residue of a Green Lantern power ring's energy from any object that it has touched. Once fueled by this energy, his device can then be used much the same way as a Green Lantern Ring. In addition to Hal Jordan, Black Hand has battled Kilowog and the second Flash (Barry Allen) over the course of his career. For a while, he retired from a life of crime and attempted to run an adult theatre. This new lease on life came to an abrupt end when it was interrupted by Guy Gardner and his girlfriend Ice. Though the incident was minor in their eyes, it spurred Hand to become a criminal once more. Further encounters with a ring-less Gardner left Hand both psychologically and emotionally scarred. Shortly before Hal Jordan's resurrection, Black Hand's device located a spare power ring that Green Arrow held in case of emergency. Hand tried to claim the ring for himself, but was stopped by Green Arrow and Hal Jordan, who at that point was the current Spectre. As Hand attempted to wield the power ring, the emerald archer pinned the villain's hand to the wall with an arrow and the Spectre turned his hand to coal, stating "(now) he can live up to his name". Now missing his right hand and driven insane from trauma, Hand fled. However, after hearing of Hal Jordan's resurrection, he decided to live in the rebuilt Coast City to stay close to his foe. While on board an airplane, he was targeted and abducted by the Kroloteans, a race of mysterious German-speaking aliens, who are akin to the gremlins of myth. They performed experiments that enhanced his powers, and abandoned him in a public park. He has since resurfaced in the Infinite Crisis mini-series as one of the several heroes and villains observed by Kal-L and Superboy-Prime. Post-Infinite Crisis origin Black Hand's origin was rewritten in the Secret Origin storyline of Green Lantern, and furtherly enhanced in the Blackest Night arc, as written by Geoff Johns. William Hand's parents run a coroner's/funeral home, the logo of which is the same symbol William will adopt at the beginning of his criminal career. At the time a young boy, Hand was shown as having a severe preoccupation with death and the dead, including implied necrophilia. It seems no particular trauma or event ignited his paraphilia: even as a toddler, William was deeply fascinated by death and dead people, calling them 'pretty'. At first trying to control his urges by engaging in taxidermia, however William was discovered after killing his family dog to put his stuffed corpse, along with the other animals he experimented on, in his room and sent to various psychologists towards his entire life. William simply shrugged every attempt to "cure" him, learning how to hide the most prurient manifestations of his necrophilia and accepting for himself the role of the black sheep. His energy-absorbing weapon is now portrayed as being built by Atrocitus, a fervent enemy of the Guardians of the Universe. He comes to Earth to seek out the being who will bring on the events to be known as the Blackest Night. This being is revealed to be William Hand. Atrocitus locates and attacks Hand, believing the black power lies within his insides. Atrocitus is stopped by Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and Sinestro, while Hand pockets the weapon and flees the scene. He is later seen breaking into a hospital morgue, trying to steal one of the corpses there. When he is confronted by a security guard, he uses the weapon to kill him. Under the thrall of a mysterious voice, the same who told him to steal Atrocitus' weapon for himself, William comes to resent Green Lantern, as a beacon of light upsetting the perfect balance of darkness and death. Trying to extinguish the light of willpower, but unwilling to fight Green Lantern as an average joe, he sews a costume from a family cadaver pouch, calling himself Black Hand (an hidden joke between his family name and his black sheep role). Apparently, Green Lantern never connected his earlier fight with Atrocitus and William to Black Hand and his energy-absorbing weapon, thus believing it an original creation of Black Hand. Black Hand does nothing to correct Hal's belief, and keeps fighting him over the years, retreating in a desecrated grave after each failure, to lie with the corpses, hoping for peace and release. Blackest Night While being transported to prison, Black Hand experiences a sudden power surge, killing his guards in the detonation and roamed the desert hearing "Death" calling to him. Hand can hear the voice of death calling out to him and giving directions to reclaim all the souls that death has lost in the DC Universe, including Superman and Green Lantern. Black Hand returns to his family's house and kills his two brothers, his mother and father. He then turns his weapon on himself, comitting suicide. At the same time, the Guardian Scar arrives at the Hand house. and pronouncing Black Hand's self-sacrifice as good, vomits up the first Black power ring. She then resurrects Hand, gives him the first Black power ring, and reveals that Hand is the physical embodiment of the black porrtion of the emotional spectrum, in the same manner as Ion is for the green portion of the spectrum, Parallax for the yellow portion, and Predator for the violet portion. Hand then accepts the black ring. Black Hand later spies on Green Lantern and the Flash as they pay their respects at the unmarked grave of Batman. After the two heroes depart, Black Hand digs up Batman's corpse and, speaking his own oath, begins the process of recruiting the deceased hero; The Blackest Night falls from the skies, The darkness grows as all light dies, We crave your hearts and your demise, By my black hand-- The dead shall rise! Black Hand is speaking with whoever is behind the Black Lanterns in Sector 666 about the fact that no one escapes death, all while holding Batman's skull. He is later seen when Black Lanterns Elongated Man and Sue Dibny kill Hawkman and Hawkgirl and remove their hearts to charge their rings. Hand enters and proclaims that Hawkman and Hawkgirl will not escape death this time, at which point two black rings fly out of Batman's skull and Hand commands Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders to rise. Powers and equipment Black Hand possesses a device which can manipulate the energy of Green Lantern power rings. It can obtain this energy by directly draining it from a ring, or via the residue a power ring gives off. Like power rings, however, it needs to replenish this energy on a regular basis in order to operate. Hand usually does this during battles with one or more Green Lanterns, and has also used it to help him locate nearby power rings. This technically makes the device somewhat similar to early yellow Qwardian power rings, especially the ring wielded by Sinestro and Guy Gardner. The device was recently stated to be the creation of Atrocitus of the Five Inversions, after it was believed it was actually his. He was at one point considered at the very least an extremely creative and inventive genius, but with his mental condition deterioration, it is unknown whether he can repeat these feats of mental activity. Following the actions of extraterrestrials who subjected him to experimentation, he now has a means to recreate his hand. The experiments granted Black Hand the ability to consume the life-force of the living to create a new hand for himself. The amount of life-force he consumes relates to the amount of time he can control the limb. As an after effect of the experimentation, when he has not consumed enough life-force, he assumes a burnt or decaying appearance. After his suicide, Black Hand is resurrected by Scar as an undead being and the first Black Lantern, and gains a Black power ring in the process. External links Black Hand at the DC Database Character information from GLCorps.org Green Lantern: The Dawn of Blackest Night Black Hand costume gallery Category:DC Comics supervillains Category:Characters created by Gil Kane Category:Characters created by John Broome Category:Fictional criminals Category:Fictional undead Category:Fictional engineers Category:Fictional amputees Category:Fictional mass murderers Category:Fictional people who committed suicide Category:Fictional characters with mental illness Category:1964 comics characters debuts